Choose Your Adventure
by Linen Tartaruga
Summary: Two boys searching for their parents will learn the hard way that the choices they make may not result in the consequences they expected and, in the end, they may never be the same again.


**Title: Choose Your Adventure**

**Ch****aracters:** Just about everyone

**Summary: **Everyone says that life has consequences, but few ever mention the choices that come before them. Two boys searching for their parents will learn the hard way that the choices they make may not result in the consequences they expected and, in the end, they may never be the same again.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned FMA then I wouldn't be poor and this wouldn't be fanfic.

**Rating:** We're going with PG-13/T at this point.

**Warnings:** AU, language, and violence in future chapters.

**Notes:** So . . . Yeah, this is the second of my epic AU!FMA fics. This one wasn't planned, it just kinda smacked me in the head and wouldn't let go until I did something about it. Okay, I wasn't exactly unwilling either.

Just a couple of other disclaimers: Yes, this did occur to me while I was on a Pirates of the Caribbean kick, but you'll see in future chapters that the two plots are completely different (and this won't make sense until future chapters anyway).

Also, again, this won't come up for another chapter or so, but I apologize in advance for how I'm going to portray Riza Hawkeye and Maria Ross. I would have liked to keep them in similar stations as they have canonically, but it just doesn't make sense with the setting. So please don't string me up!

Oh, one last thing: To those of you wondering, no, I haven't forgotten about Yock Island, I've just been having . . . A lot of computer issues and, honestly, lazy issues. I promise I'm almost done with the next chapter though!

* * *

**Choice One: To Leave**

It wasn't that the orphanage was bad, per se, that made the two boys decide to run away. On the contrary -- it was quite nice; the woman that ran it was very kind, they were given three square meals a day which, though not exactly the finest cuisine, was decent, and their chores were never unreasonable. This wasn't the reason that they ran away. They knew, you see, that they didn't belong there. And orphanage was for orphans, who were children who didn't have any parents, so there was no need for them to be in an orphanage because Edward and Alphonse most definitely had parents -- they could remember them clearly. And the day that they'd left the two boys there at the orphanage, they'd left them with a promise that they'd be back for them. Someday.

That had been nine years ago and apparently "someday" hadn't come yet. Edward was convinced that "someday" was never going to come, but Alphonse was _certain_ that they would keep their promise. One thing that they both agreed on, however, was that they weren't going to get anywhere simply waiting around in the orphanage. They were both too old for most people looking to adopt children, but too young for the woman running the place to allow them to leave on their own; and, if their parents were in trouble (as Alphonse insisted they had to be if they hadn't come for them yet), then the two boys couldn't help them from inside the orphanage.

They'd planned their escape for a month before finally gathering what few possessions they had and putting their plan into effect. By the time anyone had even realized that they were gone, they were already halfway to the next town. A town that just so happened to be home to a prominent port, with ships coming and going nearly every hour.

The two brothers had learned, through strategically asked question to strategically chosen people that the last that had been heard of their parents, they had been heading for England. So, if Edward and Alphonse were going to really try to find their parents, then they needed to get to England. The problem was that they had neither money nor anything to sell that would be worth enough to buy them passage to England on even the cheapest of ships. They might have offered to work in lue of payment, but neither of them knew a thing about working on a boat and none of the hardened and mostly scowling sailors looked willing or patient enough to teach them.

"We'll hafta stow away."

Alphonse looked at his brother in shock who only continued nibbling on a half-stale piece of bread that they'd packed away before leaving the orphanage. "But, Ed, we _can't_! That just like stealing!"

This was true and Alphonse saw that his older brother knew it, but that didn't seem to deter him. "Well gee, thanks Cap'n Obvious. I wouldn't-a known if you hadn't told me." Edward chose not to see his brother flinch. "Well how _else_ d'you expect us to get to England? _Swim_?"

"We don't know how to swim . . . " Alphonse mumbled.

"Then I guess we're gonna hafta stow away. It's late now, so not many ships are gonna be taking off. We'll wait 'til just before dawn and sneak on board a boat with a cap'n that's too stupid to notice."

Alphonse still didn't like it, even if they _didn't_ have any other way to England. "But Ed-"

"Don't start, Al. We've got no other way. Just try not to think about it if it's really getting' to you that much, okay? Pretend we really _did_ pay. We're just too important to board with the rest of the passengers."

This managed to make the younger boy smile and, so, the older boy in response. And that was really all that mattered, as far as Edward was concerned. So long as his little brother was happy, he would go to the _moon_ for him. Well, this time Alphonse wasn't happy, but Edward could understand that; he was okay, though, and that was fine for the time being.

Edward laid down on his haystack inside the abandoned barn they'd found and gestured for Alphonse to do the same. "Get some sleep, Al," he said. "We got an early day tomorrow."

* * *

Dawn hadn't quite broken yet, but the docks were already slowly awakening. Crews were beginning to get head starts on loading and unloading cargo that they'd left behind the night before in favor of taking advantage of their brief time ashore; there were even a few passengers arriving, hoping to avoid the rush later on. It wasn't anywhere near as busy and hectic as it had been during the day, but it was enough to keep the men working too busy to notice a couple of street urchins sneaking around where maybe they shouldn't have been. No one saw them; or, if they did, the didn't think much of it. It wasn't unusual to see a couple of street rats sneaking around the docks, after all. Most of them were pickpockets or beggars or were just scrounging around for some tossed away scraps of precious food. Even the gruel that the sailors got at sea was better than starving. Some sneered at the idea, but most (the ones that remembered their own street rat days) took at least _some_ pity on the kids, either by sharing a meal or two or pretending not to see them, even when they were pilfering someone's wallet. 

These two boys, however, weren't after scraps from half-eaten meals or some spare change or loose wallet. They had their sights set on something much bigger.

There were plenty of ships to choose from, but the wrong choice could the brother thrown overboard, in jail, or sharing a cargo hold with a herd of disagreeable (and possibly seasick) animals all the way to England. They had to be careful, Edward told his brother, and pick the right crew that either wouldn't notice them or wouldn't give them up. More importantly, they needed to choose a _captain_ that either wouldn't notice them or wouldn't punish them too severely if he _did_.

Although it was easier said than done, Edward and Alphonse found themselves a crew more quickly than they did a captain. Many of the sailors appeared lazy and uncaring; seeming ready and willing to ignore a few missing rations and extra sounds coming from where they shouldn't. So the only way to narrow things down was through the cargo and the captain.

Edward and Alphonse immediately ticked off the ships with live cargo or anything else that they might not have wanted to travel so far with. Then, they went looking for a captain.

The first one that they came upon was a brick wall of a man, appearing ready and able and willing to smash anyone who got in his way. That probably included stowaways, so the brothers moved on.

The next captain they found seemed perfect, at first. He was a kind-looking older man with a smile that might have reminded the boys of their grandfather, if they'd known him. At first glance, he seemed like the type of man that wouldn't notice someone stealing bread right off of his plate, right from under his nose. Of course the fact that one of his was covered with a patch and the other never actually seemed to open would support that theory. Until they watched one of their fellow street urchins try to sneak up behind the grandfatherly captain to snatch away a few coins from the man's pocket. Before any one of the boys could even blink, the captain had a gun trained at the pickpocket's forehead.

From where they were watching, neither Edward nor Alphonse could make out what the captain _or _the other boy were saying. That was fine, though, since they weren't really sure that they wanted to know the pickpocket's fate. Besides, they had business of their own to tend to before the ships began setting sail and it seemed that that business would be completed on some _other_ part of the docks.

At least ten other potential captains were overseeing the loading of cargo and otherwise preparing of their ships to sail and Edward and Alphonse evaluated them all. Of course, as these things always go, it was the last captain that they spied on that the boys found a perfect match in.

He wasn't standing by his ship, but off to the side of the docks when they found him. He wasn't haggling prices for supplies or hiring more hands to help on board; in fact, what he _was_ doing had nothing to do with sailing whatsoever, so far as the two boys knew. The captain -- a surprisingly young man when compared to the others they'd seen -- was standing near an inn and bar. It opened very early to cater to the sailors that mostly patronized it whenever they might feel a need to patronize it, and was run by a family of six. There was the mother, the father, the two eldest sons, the youngest son, and the two daughters. Both of whom were being sweet talked by the young, charming, and handsome captain. Edward got the feeling that, had the sisters' father one of their brothers been out there (and seen the way the captain's eyes liked to wander), the captain wouldn't have had such a pretty face anymore.

As Edward and Alphonse watched, the same young street urchin that had just had a gun pointed at his head rushed up to the captain, unable to quite stop himself before he ran into the man's leg. He glared down at the boy, daring him to give him a good reason as to why he'd taken the captain's attention away from the quite easy-on-the-eyes young ladies. In an instant, his expression changed, however, once he heard the younger of the two sisters express their sympathy for the boy. Edward and Alphonse looked on eagerly as the women (girls, really) convinced the captain to give the boy a few scraps of food from the breakfast they'd packed for him. While he was busy doing that, the two brothers saw another street rat sneak up behind the captain, give the begging boy a thumb's up and steal the money right out of the captain's back pocket.

The two sisters obviously saw the pickpocket as well; it seemed that the captain was the only one that hadn't noticed a thing, even though his wallet had been taken right out of his back pocket, emptied, and then slipped back in. Surely, even if he hadn't noticed it being taken, the man would have noticed it being put back! But no, the captain just went on smiling his charming smile, giving no hint that he had any idea that there was something amiss.

The pickpocket flashed the money to the urchin and rushed off with the urchin following closely after.

Edward and Alphonse looked at each other and grinned. They'd found their captain.

* * *

The sneak on board was almost as easy for the two brothers as the pick pocketing had been for the two street urchins. 

The ship, itself, was built both for cargo transportation and for passengers, so the crew was split between loading the cargo and helping the passengers (and their luggage) on board. This made things simpler, with their attention split in half. It would have been more difficult had they attempted to sneak on board with the paying passengers since any of them would surely notice two extra members to their parties; besides that they weren't on the passenger list. So, the boys decided, instead, to take their chances with the cargo.

It took some prying, but they finally managed to remove the tops off of two crates filled with cotton without anyone noticing. Alphonse went in first so that Edward could reseal the top on that crate, making it less likely for anyone to suspect someone was in there. Then, Edward climbed into the other one, fixing the top as best he could from the inside. Apparently it was good enough because, after lying all cramped up in there for what felt like hours (and might very well have been) just listening to the hubbub outside, Edward finally heard voices and footsteps approaching. The weight shifted a moment later the boy heard grunting the crate bobbed its way towards what he could only assume was the ship.

"Geeze, what the hell d'they got in these boxes?" Edward heard from outside. He immediately froze.

"I dunno," a second voice answered. "Label says 'cotton,' so maybe it's sand."

"Hey, don't get smart with me. I know what it says, but since when is cotton so heavy?"

"Carry many crates of cotton, do ya?"

There was a long silence and Edward could practically see the second man smirking while the first tried to ignore the fact that he'd just been made a fool of.

"Still," the first man pointed out, "these shirts we're wearing are made outta cotton, right?"

"Right."

"And they're pretty light, right?"

"Right."

"So, logic'ly, this crate should be light, right?"

"Wrong."

"Right! . . . Wait, what?"

"I said 'wrong.' Just 'cause one single cotton shirt's light doesn't mean a whole big crate full octoroon's gonna be light."

"Oh yeah? How d'you figure that?"

"'Cause weight adds up. Plus you got the extra weight of the crate. Then, o'course, there's the air. Since the ocean's right here, the air's got more water in it and some o'the ocean spray's bound to get in there too. So now you got a wet crate full o'wet cotton. O'course it's gonna be heavy."

Edward nearly gave himself away trying not to laugh. What the second voice was saying made sense, but when compared to the fact that they were talking about cotton -- even wet cotton -- being as heavy as a fifteen year old boy, it was complete and utter bullshit. That would have to be an awful lot of cotton. Nevertheless, if the two men preferred to believe that instead of thinking that there might be a couple of teenaged stowaways in their cargo, that was perfectly fine by Edward and he wasn't about to correct them.

At some point they must have actually arrived in the cargo hold because the crate dropped and Edward slammed against the floor of it. He heard the second voice assure the first that that was the last of the cargo and the captain wanted them to help the passengers settle in before they set sail. That was perfect.

Since the top to his crate wasn't really secured, Edward was able to quickly free himself. He looked around the hold searching for his brother's crate, but there were so many in there and they all looked alike to him.

"Al?" he whispered as loudly as he dared. "Al where are you?" His brother answered back with a whispered "Over here!" and Edward rolled his eyes. "You're gonna hafta do better'n _that_, Al. There're a lot of 'over heres.'"

"Well it's not like I can exactly see where I am, Ed," the younger boy retorted.

Edward smiled sheepishly. "Good point. Well I guess you're just gonna hafta keep talking and I'll follow the sound of your voice. Okay?"

"Okay."

Alphonse began saying whatever came into his head to help his brother find him; some of the things he came up with made Edward seriously question his sanity. But, on the other hand, he sometimes questioned his own too, so it didn't bother him that much.

It took some searching, but the two boys were eventually reunited -- somehow, Alphonse's crate had ended clear across the room from Edward's. They gathered up what little they'd brought with them, resealed the crates (the two they'd hidden in along with a few others that Edward had opened by mistake), and, once all that was done, plopped down on the floor, both wondering the same thing. Alphonse was the first to actually ask, "Well? What now, Ed?"

Of course, being the elder brother came with certain responsibilities, all of which Edward took very seriously. They had to be the good influence, the best friend, the advice giver, the protector, and, when there were no parental figures around, the possessor of all of the world's knowledge. So, even though he'd just been wondering the same exact thing not twenty seconds ago, he was prepared with an answer. Well, it was more of an educated guess.

"Well," he said, leaning against a crate, "the two guys that carried us in said I was the last of the cargo. So that means that they just hafta get the rest of the passengers on board and finish up whatever they need to do to make the ship ready to sail. It probably won't be that long and we'll be on our way to England before you know it. After that, well, we'll have to watch the crew and passengers to see when and where they eat to make it easier to snatch the leftovers. It might take a couple tries, but we still have food left, so that should be enough to hold us over 'til we can get our hands on something else."

Edward spoke with such certainty and confidence that it was difficult to not believe him, especially for Alphonse. The older boy had been there for him since long before he could remember, always going far beyond the call of brotherly duty. He was lucky to have Edward to look out for him and he knew that he wouldn't be where he was then if it hadn't been for his brother.

Which, as it turned out, was almost in serious trouble.

They just barely heard the footsteps in time and they both shared a panicked look before diving behind the cargo near the back of the hold. They dare peak over the tops of the crates or even _breathe_, even when a second and third set of footsteps joined the first. Inspecting the cargo hold, Edward mouthed to his brother, to make sure that there weren't any stowaways. Alphonse mouthed back that Edward hadn't mentioned that when he'd asked just a second ago. Edward stuck his tongue out at him.

Finally the three sailors seemed satisfied with their pathetic inspection (not that the stowaways were complaining) and they left the way they'd come. The two boys stayed where they were hidden for another few minutes, just in case someone else came along or one of the first three hadn't really left.

When they were satisfied, they carefully crawled back out, not seeing anyone, and Alphonse gave his brother a Look that told him that he wasn't going to asking the older boy anymore questions for a while.

_-To be continued_


End file.
